Local water and sewer customers could face a FOG surcharge in the future if ongoing grease problems do not stop. FOG stands for Fats, Oils and Grease, and the Cedar Key Water and Sewer District is tired of footing the bill for the problem.

While most of Cedar Key slept Sunday night, lightening cracked and most likely began a fire that nearly consumed one building and came perilously close to burning several others on SR 24.

Mermaid’s Landing owner, Kathy Carver, was nearly rolled out of bed by the tremendous thunder boom. She said she was afraid to go outside to look around because of the continuous lightening. Forty-five minutes later, the police were banging on her front door, letting her know there was a fire. A man walking by had seen the flames and called 911.

Cedar Key commissioners voted 4-0 last week during a city budget workshop to set a tentative city tax rate at 4 mills, which, if approved during later budget hearings, would be an increase from last year's rate of 3.65 mills.

A mill represents $1 of tax assessment per $1,000 of assessed property value. For example, at 4 mills, someone owning a house in Cedar Key worth $100,000, would pay $400 in property taxes. Commissioners could still come down on the tax rate in future meetings.

The Levy County Commission expressed shock that it drew only one taxpayer to a public hearing on special assessments on Tuesday evening in the commission meeting room.

It was a sharp change from two years ago when the hearing was held in the larger Courtroom A at the County Courthouse to accommodate the people objecting to increases in special assessments and any increase in property taxes.

Against the recommendation of an engineer, the Cedar Key City Commission voted unanimously Tuesday night to move the location of two speed tables designed to slow traffic before the public was allowed to voice any objections.
Police Chief Virgil Sandlin said the tables--speed humps with a flattened section in the middle--are “very user friendly” with a six-foot approach, 28-foot table and six-foot exit.

Wayne Watson, works on a greenhouse on State Road 24 being built next to the Dollar General. Billy Robinson, also known as “Broccoli Billy,” has grown and sold produce at the location for several years and is expanding his business to include a large greenhouse where he can produce more specialty plants for sale to the public. The duct tape is necessary to cover the joints of the frame work of the greenhouse so that the cover will not be torn by the hard edges.

Austrian-born Canadian businessman Frank Stronach's name is not on the 18,000 acres of land that changed hands two weeks ago, but it may as well be.
When combined with other purchases, Stronach could be on his way to becoming a force in Levy County's future.
He has talked about plans to raise organic beef on "huge areas" in Florida.
"I’m planning to buy 20,000 hectares of woods in (the U.S. state of) Florida. The climate is excellent there," he told the Austria Times in March 2010.